Well, here it is another one of those big February celebrations — Valentine’s Day. I guess it’s generally considered to be one of, if not the, most romantic days of the year. It’s a long standing tradition that I talk about Valentine’s Day every year on this blog. If you’ve read the February 14 entries over the years, you know that while we celebrate a lot of holidays, we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day — at least not on Valentine’s Day. We’ve always found restaurants or places that we’d like to go on Valentine’s Day just too crowded so we either celebrate the occasion before or after the fact.
Valentine’s Day, like most everything else, has changed over the years. When I was young, we always had a Valentine’s Day party at school. Today, I’m not sure that’s allowed at all schools, and even those that do allow it, operate with some constraints. If you remember last year, I told you that you could find all the romance you need at White Castle — the hamburger chain. I hope you took my advice and made reservations for this year. Probably when I was young(er) I never would have thought to take a date or spouse to White Castle on this, perhaps the most romantic day of the year. See? Things change… so maybe this is a good time to reminisce about earlier times — not to say they were better… just different.
Not sure if this is true, but history’s first valentine may have been written in a prison. In the 15th century, Charles, Duke of Orleans, at the age of 21, wrote a love poem to his second wife after he was captured at the Battle of Agincourt. He was a prisoner for more than 20 years and would never see his valentine’s reaction to his poetry.
Some say Valentine’s Day origin can be traced to a Christian effort to replace a pagan fertility festival that has been dated as far back as the 6th century B.C. During the festival of Lupercalia, Roman priests would sacrifice goats and dogs and use their blood-soaked hides to slap women on the streets, as a fertility blessing. According to legend, women would later put their names in an urn and be selected to be paired with a man for a year. Not sure why you’d want to replace such a fun festival, but apparently someone thought a Valentine’s Day celebration would be better….
Cupid has bee associated with Valentine’s Day for centuries. But — before he was renamed Cupid, he was known to the Greeks as Eros, the god of love. Eros was the son of Greek goddess Aphrodite and would use two sets of arrows — one for love and another for hate to play with the emotions of those he shot. We can credit the Romans for changing his image into the childlike appearance that we recognize today.
You know those chalky heart-shaped candies that always show up around Valentines Day? Guess what — they started out as lozenges. The machine to create the lozenges was invented by a pharmacist, Oliver Chase. He figured out that the machine could also be used to create candy — these candies later became known as Necco Wafers. Chase’s brother came up with the idea to print messages on the candy and a number of years later the candy was made in heart shapes — that appealed to people, especially around Valentine’s Day.
So I guess the point here is that love is where — and when — you find it. Maybe a hamburger is another man’s rose….
— 30 —